Item 1A. Risk Factors
ITEM 1A: RISK FACTORS
We are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which could materially affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, future results, and the trading price of our common stock. You should read carefully the following information together with the information appearing in Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 as filed with the United States (“U.S.”) Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on February 4, 2025 (“2024 Form 10-K”) as updated by the information appearing in Part II, Item 1A, Risk Factors in our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q as filed with the SEC (“Forms 10-Q”). The following information supplements and, to the extent inconsistent, supersedes some of the information appearing in the Risk Factors section of our 2024 Form 10‑K and Forms 10-Q. These risk factors, as well as our condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto and the other information appearing in this report, should be reviewed carefully for important information regarding risks that affect us.
Business interruptions or systems failures may impair the availability of our websites, applications, products or services, or otherwise harm our business.
Our systems and operations and those of our service providers and partners have experienced from time to time, and may experience in the future, business interruptions or degradation of service because of distributed denial-of-service and other cyberattacks, insider threats, hardware and software defects or malfunctions, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, and other natural disasters, public health crises (including pandemics), power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks, computer viruses or other malware, or other events. The frequency and intensity of weather events related to climate change are increasing, which could increase the likelihood and severity of such disasters as well as related damage and business interruption. Our corporate headquarters are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a seismically active region in California. A catastrophic event that could lead to a disruption or failure of our systems or operations could result in significant losses and require substantial recovery time and significant expenditures to resume or maintain operations. Further, some of our systems, including those of companies that we have acquired, are not fully redundant and any failure of these acquired systems, including due to a catastrophic event, may lead to operational outages or delays. While we engage in disaster recovery planning and testing intended to mitigate risks from outages or delays, our planning and testing may not be effective or sufficient for all possible outcomes or events. As a provider of payments solutions, we are also subject to heightened scrutiny by regulators that may require specific business continuity, resiliency and disaster recovery plans, and rigorous testing of such plans, which may be costly and time-consuming to implement, and may divert our resources from other business priorities. Any of the foregoing risks could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, system failures, cyberattacks, unplanned outages, and other events or conditions from time to time that have and may interrupt the availability, or reduce or adversely affect the speed or functionality, of our products and services. While we continue to undertake system upgrades and re-platforming efforts designed to improve the availability, reliability, resiliency, and speed of our payments platform, these efforts are costly and time-consuming, involve significant technical complexity and risk, may divert our resources from new features and products, and may ultimately not be effective. A prolonged interruption of, or reduction in, the availability, speed, or functionality of our products and services could materially harm our business and financial condition. For example, in August 2025, PayPal experienced a temporary service disruption triggered by a coding error in a system update, which primarily impacted a limited number of customers and partners in Germany. In connection with this disruption, we experienced some fraudulent transaction activity for a limited time period. While our review of the incident is ongoing, we have incurred transaction losses and other expenses as a result, including claims under our protection programs, and we may be subject to increased regulatory scrutiny, fines, penalties and litigation. Frequent or persistent interruptions in or disruptions to our services could permanently harm our relationship with our customers and partners and our reputation. If any system failure or similar event results in damage to our customers or their business partners, they could seek significant compensation or contractual penalties from us for their losses. These claims, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming and costly for us to address.
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We also rely on facilities, components, applications, software, and services supplied by third parties, including data center facilities and cloud data storage and processing services. From time to time, we have experienced interruptions in the provision of such facilities and services provided by these third parties. If these third parties experience operational interference or disruptions (including a cybersecurity incident), fail to perform their obligations, or breach their agreements with us, our operations could be disrupted or negatively affected, which could result in customer dissatisfaction, regulatory scrutiny, and damage to our reputation and brands, and materially and adversely affect our business. While we maintain insurance policies intended to help offset the financial impact we may experience from these risks, our coverage may be insufficient to compensate us for all losses caused by interruptions in our service due to systems failures and similar events.
In addition, any failure to successfully implement new information systems and technologies or improvements or upgrades to existing information systems and technologies in a timely manner could lead to regulatory scrutiny, significant fines and penalties, and mandatory and costly changes to our business, adversely impact our business, internal controls, results of operations, and financial condition, and ultimately could cause us to lose existing licenses that we need to operate or prevent or delay us from obtaining additional licenses that may be required for our business.
Our business is subject to extensive government regulation and oversight. Our failure to comply with extensive, complex, overlapping, and frequently changing rules, regulations, and legal interpretations could materially harm our business.
Our business is subject to complex and changing laws, rules, regulations, policies, licensing schemes, and legal interpretations in the markets in which we offer services directly or through partners, including, but not limited to, those governing: banking, credit, deposit taking, cross-border and domestic money transmission, prepaid access, foreign currency exchange, privacy, data protection, data governance, cybersecurity, banking secrecy, digital payments, cryptocurrency, payment services (including payment processing and settlement services), lending, fraud detection, consumer protection, antitrust and competition, economic and trade sanctions, anti-money laundering, and counter-terrorist financing.
Regulators and legislators globally have been establishing, evolving, and increasing their regulatory authority, oversight, and enforcement, and it can be difficult to predict how these may be applied to our business and the way we conduct our operations. As we introduce new products and services and expand into new markets, including through acquisitions, we expect to become subject to additional regulations, restrictions, and licensing requirements. As we expand and localize our international activities, we expect that our obligations in the markets in which we operate will continue to increase. In addition, because we facilitate sales of goods and provide services to customers worldwide, one or more jurisdictions may claim that we or our customers are required to comply with their laws or other types of regulation, which may impose different, more specific, and/or conflicting obligations on us, as well as broader liability.
We may not be able to respond quickly or effectively to regulatory, legislative, and other developments, any failure or perceived failure to comply with existing or new laws, regulations, or orders of any government authority (including changes to or expansion of their interpretation) may result in audits, inquiries, investigations, whistleblower complaints, and adverse media coverage; subject us to significant fines, penalties, monetary damages, injunctive relief, criminal and civil lawsuits, forfeiture of significant assets, and enforcement actions in one or more jurisdictions; result in additional compliance and licensure requirements; cause us to temporarily or permanently lose existing licenses or prevent or delay us from obtaining additional licenses that may be required for our business; increase regulatory scrutiny of our business; divert management’s time and attention from our business; restrict our operations; lead to increased friction for customers; force us to make changes to our business practices, products, or operations; require us to engage in remediation activities; or delay planned transactions, product launches, or improvements. Any of the foregoing could, individually or in the aggregate, harm our reputation, damage our brands and business, and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. The complexity of U.S. federal and state and international regulatory and enforcement regimes, coupled with the global scope of our operations and the evolving global regulatory environment, could result in a single event prompting a large number of overlapping investigations and legal and regulatory proceedings by multiple government authorities in different jurisdictions. While we have implemented policies and procedures designed to help ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors, and agents will not violate such laws and regulations.
Payments Regulation
In the U.S., PayPal, Inc. (a wholly-owned subsidiary) holds licenses to operate as a money transmitter (or its equivalent) in the states where such licenses are required, as well as in the District of Columbia and certain territories. If we fail to comply with applicable laws or regulations required to maintain our licenses, we could be subject to liability and/or additional restrictions, forced to cease doing business with residents of certain states or territories, forced to change our business practices, or required to obtain additional licenses or regulatory approvals, which could impose substantial costs and harm our business.
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While we currently allow our customers to send payments from approximately 200 markets, we allow customers in only approximately half of those markets (including the U.S.) to also receive payments, in some cases with significant restrictions on the manner in which customers can hold balances or withdraw funds. These restrictions may limit our ability to grow our business.
We principally provide our services to customers in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) through PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. (“PayPal (Europe)”), our wholly-owned subsidiary that is licensed and subject to regulation as a credit institution in Luxembourg and to our customers in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) through PayPal U.K. Limited (“PayPal U.K.”), a wholly-owned subsidiary that is subject to regulation as an electronic money institution and a consumer credit firm (and registered as a crypto asset business) in the U.K. by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”). PayPal (Europe) or PayPal U.K. may be subject to enforcement actions and significant fines and penalties if either violates applicable requirements. If the business activities of PayPal (Europe) exceed certain thresholds, or if the European Central Bank (“ECB”) so determines, PayPal (Europe) may be deemed a significant supervised entity and certain activities of PayPal (Europe) would become directly supervised by the ECB, rather than by the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier. PayPal (Europe) is also subject to regulation by the ECB under the oversight framework for electronic payment instruments, schemes and arrangements (“PISA”). Compliance with applicable laws and regulations could become more costly and operationally difficult to manage due to additional supervision, potentially inconsistent interpretations, and domestic regulations by various countries in the region. Applicable regulation relating to payments, anti-money laundering, and digital services, which are key focus areas of regulators and subject to extensive new regulation, could subject us to additional and complex obligations, risks, and associated costs, and impact our ability to expand our business in Europe.
For many of the other markets outside the U.S., we provide services on a cross-border basis through PayPal Pte. Ltd., our wholly-owned subsidiary based in Singapore. PayPal Pte. Ltd. is supervised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”). As of July 1, 2023, PayPal Pte. Ltd. has been issued a Major Payment Institution license by the MAS under the Payment Services Act 2019. In order to maintain this license and certain other licenses or registrations we hold in certain markets, we are required to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, which have imposed and will continue to impose increasing operational complexity and costs for our Singapore and international operations. Moreover, in many non-U.S. markets (other than Singapore) where customers of PayPal Pte. Ltd. or local branches or subsidiaries subject to local regulatory supervision or oversight, as the case may be, are located, there may be uncertainty whether our Singapore-based service is subject only to Singapore law or also to other local laws, and whether such local laws might require a payment processor like us to be licensed as a payments service, bank, financial institution, or otherwise.
There are substantial costs and potential product and operational changes involved in maintaining and renewing licenses, certifications, and approvals, and we could be subject to enforcement actions, fines, penalties, and litigation if we are found to violate any of these requirements. There can be no assurance that we will be able to (or decide to) continue to apply for or obtain any licenses, renewals, certifications, and approvals in any jurisdiction. In certain markets, we may need to rely on local banks or other partners to process payments and conduct foreign currency exchange transactions in local currency, and local regulators may use their authority over such local partners to prohibit, restrict, or limit us from doing business. Any of the foregoing could, individually or in the aggregate, result in substantial additional costs, delay or preclude planned transactions, geographical expansions, or product launches or improvements, require significant and costly operational changes, impose restrictions, limitations, or additional requirements on our business, products and services, or prevent or limit us from providing our products or services in a given market.
Cryptocurrency Regulation and Related Risks
Our customer cryptocurrency offerings could subject us to additional regulations, licensing requirements, or other obligations or liabilities. Within the U.S., we are regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services as a virtual currency business, which does not qualify us to engage in securities brokerage or dealing activities. The regulatory status of particular cryptocurrencies is unclear under existing law. The evolving legislative and regulatory landscapes with respect to cryptocurrency other than stablecoins may subject us to additional licensing and regulatory obligations or to inquiries or investigations from various regulators and governmental authorities, and require us to make product changes, restrict or discontinue product offerings in certain markets, implement additional and potentially costly controls, or take other actions.
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In August 2023, a third-party issuer with which we have partnered commercially (the “PYUSD Issuer”) launched a U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin named PayPal USD (“PYUSD”), which is available to PayPal customers and Venmo customers in certain markets. These PayPal and Venmo customers may, if provisioned for external transfers and subject to our sanctions and anti-money laundering controls, send PYUSD to external wallets not controlled by PayPal. The PYUSD Issuer may also allow institutional users to directly purchase PYUSD from the PYUSD Issuer (as per the PYUSD Issuer’s stablecoin terms and conditions). The regulatory treatment of stablecoins is evolving and has drawn significant attention from legislative and regulatory bodies around the world. Recently enacted U.S. federal stablecoin legislation provides a regulatory framework that is in the process of being implemented. While PYUSD is designed to comply with this U.S. framework, there remain uncertainties on how ongoing changes to international laws and regulations will apply to stablecoins in practice, and we and the PYUSD Issuer may face substantial costs to operationalize and comply with any additional or changed requirement. If we or the PYUSD Issuer fail to comply with regulations, requirements, prohibitions or other obligations applicable to us, we could face regulatory or other enforcement actions, potential fines, penalties, and other consequences. In addition, we could face reputational harm through our relationship with the PYUSD Issuer if the PYUSD Issuer were to face regulatory scrutiny or PYUSD is alleged to be used for transactions in connection with illicit or illegal activities.
We hold our customers’ cryptocurrency assets through one or more third-party custodians. Financial and third-party risks related to our customer cryptocurrency offerings, such as inappropriate access to, theft, or destruction of cryptocurrency assets held by our custodians, insufficient insurance coverage by a custodian to reimburse us for all such losses, a custodian’s failure to maintain effective controls over the custody and settlement services provided to us, a custodian’s inability to purchase or liquidate cryptocurrency holdings, the failure of the PYUSD Issuer to maintain sufficient reserve assets backing PYUSD and defaults on financial or performance obligations by a custodian, banks with which the PYUSD Issuer maintains reserve assets or counterparty financial institutions, could expose our customers and us to loss, and significantly harm our business, financial condition, and reputation.
We have selected custodian partners and the PYUSD Issuer, and may in the future select additional custodian partners and stablecoin issuing entities, that are subject to regulatory oversight, capital requirements, maintenance of audit and compliance industry certifications, and cybersecurity procedures and policies. Nevertheless, any operational disruptions at any such custodian or issuer, or such custodians’ or issuer’s failure to safeguard cryptocurrency holdings (or reserve assets), could result in losses of customer assets, expose us to customer claims, reduce consumer confidence and materially impact our cryptocurrency product offerings and our operating results.
Custodial arrangements to safeguard cryptocurrency assets involve unique risks and uncertainties in the event of a custodian’s bankruptcy. While other types of assets and some custodied cryptocurrencies have been deemed not to be part of the custodian’s bankruptcy estate under various regulatory regimes, bankruptcy courts have not yet definitively determined the appropriate treatment of custodial holdings of digital assets in a bankruptcy proceeding. In the event of a custodian’s bankruptcy, the lack of precedent and the highly fact-dependent nature of the determination could delay or preclude the return of custodied cryptocurrency assets to us or to our customers. Although we contractually require our custodians to segregate our customer assets and not commingle them with proprietary or other assets, we cannot be certain that these contractual obligations, even if duly observed by a custodian, will be effective in preventing such assets from being treated as part of the custodian’s estate under bankruptcy or other insolvency law. In that event, our claim on behalf of such customers against a custodian’s estate for our customers’ cryptocurrency assets could be treated as a general unsecured claim against the custodian, in which case our customers could seek to hold us liable for any resulting losses.
Consumer Protection
Violations of consumer protection law in applicable jurisdictions, including both federal and state laws and regulations in the U.S., such as the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (“EFTA”) and Regulation E as implemented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), could result in the assessment of significant actual damages or statutory damages or penalties (including treble damages in some instances) and plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees. We are subject to, and have paid amounts in settlement of, lawsuits containing allegations that our business violated the EFTA and Regulation E or otherwise advance claims for relief relating to our business practices (e.g., that we improperly held consumer funds or otherwise improperly limited consumer accounts).
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We are regularly subject to general litigation, regulatory scrutiny, and government inquiries.
We are regularly subject to claims, individual and class action lawsuits, arbitration proceedings, government and regulatory investigations, inquiries, actions or requests, and other proceedings alleging violations of laws, rules, and regulations with respect to competition, antitrust, intellectual property, privacy, data protection, information security, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, sanctions, anti-bribery, anti-corruption, consumer protection (including unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices), the terms of our customer agreements, fraud, accessibility, securities, tax, labor and employment, commercial disputes, services, charitable fundraising, contract disputes, escheatment of unclaimed or abandoned property, product liability, use of our services for illegal purposes, the matters described in “Note 13—Commitments and Contingencies—Litigation and Regulatory Matters—General Matters” to our condensed consolidated financial statements, and other matters. We expect that the number and significance of these disputes and inquiries will continue to increase as our products, services, and business expand in complexity, scale, scope, and geographic reach, including through acquisitions of businesses and technology, and as a result of expanded enforcement of certain existing laws and regulations by federal, state and local agencies. For example, there continues to be enforcement activity in connection with federal and state consumer protection laws, including suits which seek civil penalties. Investigations, changes in, or expanded enforcement of federal, state or local laws and regulations, and legal proceedings are inherently uncertain, expensive and disruptive to our operations, and could result in substantial judgments, fines, penalties or settlements, substantial diversion of management’s time and effort, negative publicity, reputational harm, criminal sanctions, or orders that prevent or limit us from offering certain products or services; require us to change our business practices or customer agreement terms in ways that may increase costs or reduce revenues, develop non-infringing or otherwise altered products or technologies, or pay substantial royalty or licensing fees; or delay or preclude planned transactions or product launches or improvements. Determining legal reserves or possible losses from such matters involves significant estimates and judgments and may not reflect the full range of uncertainties and unpredictable outcomes. We may be exposed to losses in excess of the amount recorded, and such amounts could be material. If our estimates and assumptions change or prove to have been incorrect, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.
We rely on third parties in many aspects of our business, which creates additional risk.
We rely on third parties in many aspects of our business, including, but not limited to, networks, banks, payment processors, and payment gateways that link us to the payment card and bank clearing networks to process transactions; unaffiliated third-party lenders to originate our U.S. credit products to consumers, U.S. merchant financing, and branded credit card products; branded debit card and savings products issued by unaffiliated banks; cryptocurrency custodial service providers; and external business partners and contractors who provide key functions (including, but not limited to, data center facilities and cloud computing, information technology, and outsourced customer support and product development functions). We are subject to additional risks inherent in engaging and relying upon third-party providers, including operational, legal, regulatory, information security, reputational, commercial, and resiliency risks. If we are unable to effectively manage our third-party relationships, these third parties are unable to meet their obligations to us, we are overly reliant on certain relationships, we are unable to negotiate favorable contractual terms, or we experience substantial disruptions in these relationships (including interruptions to the availability of our products and services), our operations, results of operations, liquidity and financial results could be adversely impacted. Additionally, our relationships with third parties inherently involve a lesser degree of control over business operations, governance, and compliance, which potentially increases our financial, legal, reputational, and operational risk.
Any factors that reduce cross-border trade or make such trade more difficult could harm our business.
Cross-border trade (i.e., transactions where the merchant and consumer are in different countries) is an important source of our revenues and profits. Cross-border transactions generally provide higher revenues and operating income than similar transactions that take place within a single country or market. In certain markets, cross-border trade represents our primary (and in some instances our only) offerings. Cross-border trade may be negatively impacted by various factors including foreign exchange rate fluctuations, changes in or new tariffs, trade wars, barriers or restrictions, or threats of such actions, or the related uncertainty thereof, sanctions, import or export controls, and the interpretation and application of laws of multiple jurisdictions in the context of cross-border trade and foreign exchange. Any factors that increase the costs or uncertainty of cross-border trade for us or our customers or that restrict, delay, or make cross-border trade more difficult or impractical could reduce our cross-border transactions and volume, negatively impact our revenues and profits, and harm our business.
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Failure to deal effectively with fraud, abusive behaviors, bad transactions, and negative customer experiences may increase our loss rate and could negatively impact our business and severely diminish merchant and consumer confidence in and use of our services.
We expect that third parties will continue to attempt to abuse access to and misuse our payments services to commit fraud by, among other things, creating fictitious PayPal accounts using stolen or synthetic identities or personal information, taking over customer accounts or creating fraudulent accounts, making transactions with stolen financial instruments, abusing or misusing our services for financial gain, or fraudulently inducing users of our products and services into engaging in fraudulent transactions. Due to the nature of PayPal’s digital payments services, third parties may seek to engage in abusive schemes or fraud attacks that are often difficult to detect and may be deployed at a scale that would otherwise not be possible in physical transactions. Measures to detect and reduce the risk of fraud and abusive behavior are complex, require continuous improvement, and may not be effective in detecting and preventing fraud, particularly new and continually evolving forms of fraud or in connection with new or expanded product offerings. If these measures are not effective, our business could be negatively impacted. We also incur substantial losses from erroneous transactions and situations where linked accounts designated by customers to fund PayPal transactions have insufficient funds or are otherwise unavailable to fund the payments, or the payment is initiated to an unintended recipient in error. Numerous and evolving fraud schemes and misuse of our payments services could subject us to significant costs and liabilities, require us to change our business practices, cause us to incur significant remediation costs, lead to loss of customer confidence in, or decreased use of, our products and services, damage our reputation and brands, divert the attention of management from the operation of our business, and result in significant compensation or contractual penalties from us to our customers and their business partners as a result of losses or claims. While we actively seek to recover transaction losses where possible, such recoveries may be insufficient to compensate us for such losses.
Our purchase and seller protection programs (“protection programs”) are intended to reduce the likelihood of losses for consumers and merchants from unauthorized and fraudulent transactions. Our purchase protection program also protects eligible transactions where consumers do not receive the item ordered or receive an item that is significantly different from its description. We incur substantial losses from our protection programs as a result of disputes filed by our customers. While we may seek to recover losses from our protection programs from the merchant, we ultimately may not be able to fully recover such losses (for example, if the merchant is unwilling or unable to pay, the transaction involves a fraudulent merchant, or the merchant provides sufficient evidence that the item was delivered).
In addition, consumers who pay through PayPal or Venmo may have reimbursement rights from their payment card issuer, which in turn will seek recovery from us. If losses incurred by us related to payment card transactions become excessive, we could lose the ability to accept payment cards for payment, which would negatively impact our business. Regulators and card networks may also adapt error resolution and chargeback requirements to account for evolving forms of fraud, which could increase PayPal’s exposure to fraud losses and impact the scope of coverage of our protection programs. Increases in our loss rate, including as a result of changes to the scope of transactions covered by our protection programs, could negatively impact our business and results of operations. See “Note 13—Commitments and Contingencies— Protection Programs ” to our condensed consolidated financial statements.
Failure to effectively monitor and evaluate the financial condition of our merchants may expose PayPal to losses. In the event of the bankruptcy, insolvency, business failure, or other business interruption of a merchant that sells goods or services in advance of the date of their delivery or use (e.g., airline, cruise, or concert tickets, custom-made goods, and subscriptions), we could be liable to the buyers of such goods or services, including through our purchase protection program or through chargebacks on payment cards used by customers to fund their purchase. Allowances for transaction losses that we have established may be insufficient to cover incurred losses.
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Our international operations subject us to increased risks, which could harm our business.
Our international operations generate a significant portion of our net revenues. Our international operations subject us to significant challenges, uncertainties, and risks, including, but not limited to, local regulatory, licensing, reporting, and legal obligations; costs and challenges associated with operating in markets in which we may have limited or no experience, including effectively localizing our products and services and adapting them to local preferences; difficulties in developing, staffing, and simultaneously managing a large number of varying foreign operations as a result of distance, language, and cultural differences and in light of varying laws, regulations, and customs; differing employment practices and the existence of works councils; difficulties in recruiting and retaining qualified employees and maintaining our company culture; fluctuations in foreign exchange rates; exchange control regulations; profit repatriation restrictions; changes in or new tariffs, sanctions, fines, or other trade barriers or restrictions and the related uncertainty thereof; import or export regulations; compliance with U.S. and foreign anti-bribery, anti-corruption, sanctions, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws and regulations; the interpretation and application of laws of multiple jurisdictions; and national or regional political, economic, or social instability. In addition, some countries have enacted or are considering data localization or residency laws, which require that certain data be maintained, stored and/or processed within their country of origin. Maintaining local data centers in individual countries could significantly increase our operating costs.
Our international operations also may heighten many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section. Any violations of the complex foreign and U.S. laws, rules and regulations that may apply to our international operations may result in lawsuits, enforcement actions, criminal actions, or sanctions against us and, our directors, officers, and employees; prohibit or require us to change our business practices; and damage our reputation. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to promote compliance with these laws, there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors, or agents will not violate our policies. These risks are inherent in our international operations, may increase our costs of doing business internationally, and could materially and adversely affect our business.
Global and regional economic conditions could harm our business.
Adverse global and regional economic conditions such as political unrest and turmoil affecting the banking system or financial markets, including, but not limited to, tightening in the credit markets, extreme volatility or distress in the financial markets (including the fixed income, credit, currency, equity, and commodity markets), unemployment, consumer debt levels, recessionary or inflationary pressures, supply chain issues, reduced consumer confidence or economic activity, government fiscal, monetary and tax policies, U.S. and international trade relationships, agreements, treaties, changes in or new tariffs and restrictive actions or threats of such actions, including an escalation of trade tensions between the U.S. and its trading partners, the inability of a government to enact a budget in a fiscal year, government shutdowns, government austerity programs, geopolitical conditions or events, and other negative financial news or macroeconomic developments could have a material adverse impact on the demand for our products and services, including a reduction in the volume and size of transactions on our payments platform. In particular, recent tariffs and reciprocal trade measures enacted or threatened to be enacted by the U.S. and other countries have led to increased volatility and uncertainty in certain parts of the global economy. We cannot predict the timing, strength or duration of the current or any future potential economic volatility or slowdown in the U.S. or globally. These conditions could have a material adverse impact on the demand for our products and services which could adversely affect our results of operations. Additionally, any inability to access the capital markets when needed due to volatility or illiquidity in the markets, liquidity needs due to unanticipated reductions in customer balances, or increased regulatory liquidity and capital requirements may strain our liquidity position. Such conditions may also expose us to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates or interest rates that could materially and adversely affect our financial results.
Environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) issues may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and damage our reputation.
Various jurisdictions are adopting or considering new laws and regulations that expand or curtail disclosure, reporting and diligence requirements with respect to ESG matters. If we are unable to comply with new laws, regulations or guidance concerning ESG matters or fail to meet investor, industry or stakeholder expectations and standards, our reputation may be harmed, customers may choose to refrain from using our products and services, we may be subject to fines, penalties, regulatory or other enforcement actions, and our business or financial condition may be adversely affected. If our ESG-related data, processes and reporting are viewed as incomplete or inaccurate, or if we fail to achieve progress with respect to ESG-related goals on a timely basis or at all, we may be viewed negatively by stakeholders concerned about these matters. Moreover, investors, customers, partners, media, government entities, and other stakeholders (including those in support of or in opposition to ESG principles) may have a negative view of us to the extent we are perceived to have not responded appropriately to their ESG concerns or take positions that are contrary to their views or expectations.
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We recognize that climate-related risks may impact our business. For example, California, where our headquarters are located, has historically experienced, and is projected to continue to experience, extreme weather and natural disaster events more frequently, including drought, flooding, heat waves, and wildfires. Such events may disrupt our business and may cause us to experience additional costs to maintain or resume operations.
There can be no assurance that we will continue to repurchase stock or declare cash dividends, and stock repurchases or dividends could increase the volatility of our stock price and could diminish our cash reserves.
We engage in share repurchases of our common stock from time to time in accordance with authorizations from our Board of Directors. Our stock repurchase programs do not have expiration dates and do not obligate us to repurchase any specific dollar amount or to acquire any specific number of shares. In October 2025, we announced that our Board of Directors initiated a quarterly cash dividend program. Future cash dividends are subject to declaration by our Board of Directors in its sole discretion and, therefore, are subject to numerous factors including, among others, prevailing market conditions, our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, applicable laws and agreements. Our stock repurchases and our dividends could affect the trading price of our common stock and increase volatility, reduce our cash reserves and may be suspended or terminated at any time, which may result in a decrease in the trading price of our common stock.
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Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.